Epic Games has now confirmed by way of an announcement on its web site that Cliff “CliffyB” Blezinski has departed Epic Games after working there for two decades. This isn’t a sabbatical; he is actually leaving the company for a much needed break, according to Blezinski.

The sheer shock of this news has left most of us with little to say. How do you say that he has changed the gaming world without thinking about all of the great things that he has accomplished? While no one knows what Blezinski might be doing next, multiple rumors are suggesting that he will take some time off and then eventually (at some point in the future) start his own new studio. Of course, we think it is much too early to speculate.

Our sources tell us that the parting was friendly, with no hard feelings on either side. Of course, there are rumors of a possible collaboration with Adrian Chielarz of People can Fly, who also recently left Epic. While it is important to point out that these are only rumors and we suspect that Blezinski will take a break, we believe he will dive back in at some point in the future. It is hard to speculate what he might be doing when he comes back on the scene.

In a surprise announcement, the BioWare doctors, who are better known as Dr. Ray Muzyka and Dr. Greg Zeschuk, have both decided to leave the company they co-founded. Both have expressed a desire to pursue new careers that are outside of the gaming industry.

The news is shocking from two individuals who have been in the industry for more than two decades. Both claim that EA played no role or was not a factor in their decision to depart BioWare.

In an open letter to fans, the pair expressed their thanks to colleagues and fans for their support over the years. While the pair does acknowledge it was difficult decision, it has apparently been in the works since April 2012 when they provided notice to EA that they would be departing BioWare. The six-month period has provided time for a solid transition to the teams at BioWare.

While the pair did not close the door on the possibility that they might be back in the video game industry at some point, it certainly will not be for a while, and perhaps never. Whispers we have heard for some time indicated that Zeschuk left BioWare unofficially after former MLG CEO Matthew Bromberg was hired as General Manager of BioWare Austin. However, we were never able to confirm this from inside BioWare. The pair leaves a great legacy behind and will be missed by colleagues and fans alike.

Insecurity outfit SecurEnvoy claims that the recently discovered Windows 7/8 password hints file exposure is another nail in the coffin for passwords. It has been reported how hackers can now gain ready access to the password hints file on Windows 7 and the upcoming Windows 8 platform.

Andy Kemshall, SecurEnvoy technical director said that while the news does not fill me with enthusiasm to rush out and upgrade to Windows 8, but it does encourage me to look more seriously at how he secures his desktop and laptop computer against prying eyes. He said that this is just another example of how the integrity of passwords has become seriously eroded in recent years.

The problem is caused by a security faux pas in the many millions of lines of code that goes to make up an operating system and/or major program suite these days. The fact that it is now possible to brute-force millions of passwords per second passwords are proving that they are often the weakest link.

Kemshall said that if passwords just don’t do the job, then people have to turn to multi-factor authentication to help protect themselves. Unfortunately, as a growing number of users of online banking have discovered in recent years, it’s a real pain having to carry a hardware token around with you all the time, especially when you find that when you really need to check your bank account and you don’t have the token with you, he said.

Of course his company happens to make a token-less system which could help you out a bit.

Continuing in what appears to be a steady streak of bad luck, antisocial social networking site Facebook has been accused of click fraud and extortion methods by advertising outfit Limited Run.

Limited Run claims that 80 percent of the clicks they paid for were from bots. Apparently, the company tried different analytics tools but got identical results.

The company refrained from directly accusing Facebook of using bots to boost ad revenue. However, it found the matter quite strange, even more so after unsuccessful attempts to contact Facebook.

It is also quite angry with Facebook over not letting it change its name, and it apparently took many tries to even get a call back. Limited Run claims Facebook agreed to allow the name change, provided the former spits out $2,000 or more in advertising monthly.

Limited Run expressed its frustration in no uncertain terms. It said the company should delete its page because Facebook is a bunch of “scumbags” and Limited Run doesn’t “have the patience for scumbags."

Nexon, the Korea video game developer, has acquired a 14.7% stake in NCSoft according to a number of reports, and the company is confirming this. NCSoft is a fellow Korean publisher. While the two companies have been focused on different market niches, the decision seems to be sitting well with many we have spoken with.

According to Nexon, the purchase was part of a long-term partnership between the two companies. The 14.7% interest in NCSoft is said to have cost approximately $688 million dollars to get the deal done.

Sources tell us that the shares, which number around 3.218 million, were purchased from NCSoft Chairman and founder, Taek Jin Kim. With this purchase, Nexon is now the largest shareholder in the company.

Speaking at the Seoul Digital Forum, Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer said that the company’s upcoming OS, Windows 8, is the most important thing it’s done.

Ballmer has never been the one to skimp on words and he mentioned “the dawning of the rebirth of Windows.” He also threw in a couple of adjectives such as “deepest, broadest and the most impactful [Windows ever]”.

Ballmer delivered a few estimates as well and said that 400-500 million people will have Windows 8 next year. He added that it will make it the most popular system. As for its older brother, Windows 7, Ballmer expects 350 million Win7 devices to ship in 2012.

It appears as if Nintendo’s Wii magic has worn off and the company’s horses turned into pumpkins as the company posted its first ever operating loss.

The loss lists a deficit of about $458 million for the now past business year. On a slightly lighter note, if there is one, the loss is still better than the consensus forecast, which was slightly under $512 million.

While it enjoyed a fair share of success as of late, the company’s most recent plans on Wii and 3DS sales didn’t go quite well. Strong yen didn't help either while analysts also point at smartphone and tablet markets slowly chewing away at Nintendo’s. mobile gaming share

Nintendo’s CEO Satoru Iwata conceded that he isn’t satisfied with the past year and added that EU sales of 3DS haven’t been as good as in Japan. He added that strong yen is also to blame but refused to offer more information on Nintendo’s possible reaction. However, the company expects operating profit of around $430 million, whereas consensus estimate is in the vicinity of $500 million.

Although Nintendo has ruled the mobile gaming segment for quite a while, smartphones are slowly but surely pushing it out, as recent surveys on mobile gaming habits confirm. Since it’s pretty clear by now that Wii U isn’t quite going to revolutionize the market either, it is time for Nintendo to take a step back and think long and hard about the future.

Tarot readers working for the analyst outfit Ovum say that the market for global service provider switching and routing market will hit revenues of $20.5bn in 2017. Currently this is sitting at $13.3bn in 2010, with a rise of 6.4 per cent over seven years, predicts Ovum.

In a new forecast report, the independent market analyst outfit reveals IP traffic growth is driving strong demand for switches and routers in service provider networks. This growth is expected to accelerate further as fixed and mobile broadband subscriber penetration rates increase and consumer video applications drive ever-growing levels of network traffic.

David Krozier, principal analyst at Ovum said that carriers will need to invest in growing their IP infrastructure or risk losing subscribers. In developing nations, carriers are building out their 3G wireless networks, while developed nations are investing in LTE to accommodate mobile bandwidth demand, he said.

North America was the largest of Ovum's geographical regions in 2011 and the Asia-Pacific region, which contains two of the top three global economies, China and Japan, was a close second.

Ovum forecasts 9.7 per cent growth in the Asia-Pacific market in 2012 and 4.0 per cent growth in North America. The companz expects the Asia-Pacific region to surpass North America as the largest regional market for telecom switches and routers equipment for 2012.

Korea's corporate regulator fined some of the country's top IT outfits with a $40.1 million fine for price rigging and consumer fraud. Samsung, LG, Pantech, SK Telecom, KT and LG in hot water along with some key telecommunications companies.

The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) said the companies colluded to inflate the prices of mobile phones and then advertise they were offering considerable incentives. This practice effectively tricked consumers into believing they were getting a bargain for buying new phones. On top of the fine, the companies have been ordered to release information on how much they provided in incentives to fuel sales.

The FTC, in addition, took administrative steps to ban these companies from offering new sales incentives. The worst offender was SK Telecom followed by Samsung Electronics and mobile carrier KT.

Mobile phone manufacturers marked up the prices of 209 models they handed over to mobile service operators, while operators advertised they were offering discounts on products and services that should not have been so expensive in the first place, the regulator said. "Companies took advantage of the complicated price setting practice in the mobile telecommunications sector to trick consumers," an FTC official said.

Intel is betting big on the future of human interfaces with a $21 million investment in Tobii, a Swedish company that has been working for years on eye-tracking laptops and other devices.

The news, announced by co-founder and VP John Elvesjö comes on the heels of Tobii’s newest eye-tracking device, which was announced a week ago at CeBit. Elvesjö said that the cunning plan was always to test its technology small scale in laptops and then expand into larger markets like cars and mobile phones.

Eye-tracking is a influential feature that could grow in value. Tobii technology has already been showing how it can control Windows 8 via eye-tracking.

Tobii is unprofitable and 2010 saw a $3.5M loss. Its new eye-tracker is smaller and cheaper and draws less power than its predecessor. It can even be embedded.